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Thursday, January 05, 2012

2012 is awesome by virtue of one simple, Chinese Zodiac-based fact: 2012 is the Year of the Dragon!

But dragons aren't just for zodiacs...comic books have their fair share of big, scaly firebreathers. From the tiny to the titanic, the cool to the sizzling hot, we're counting down the top five dragons in comics in today's Top 5 Thursday! Get ready...I've counted them down so you won't have to!

5. The Great Red Dragon

When you're a dragon this ancient and powerful, you get to relax a little. The Great Red Dragon is the chillax'd guardian of The Valley in Jeff Smith's Bone, who often comes to the aid of Fone Bone during his misadventures there. He may look carefree and laid-back, but our top five dragon would fry you where you stand just as much as he'll defend you from stupid rat creatures. And that's, like, a fact, dude.

4. Dragon Man

It takes a special kind of crazy to decide to invent an android that looks like a cross between a caveman and a dragon just for an experiment. What kind of experiment do you need a man-dragon for? Regardless, our fourth best dragon in comics has evolved into a badass dude who can take on the Fantastic Four and Hulk by himself, and even got smart enough to join Reed Richards' Future Foundation!

3. Shenlong

Shenlong isn't just any dragon...he's a wish-granting dragon! Debuting in Akira Toriyama's Dragonball manga, our top 3 dragon will grant the wish of anyone who can summon him by collecting all seven Dragon Balls. A task easier said than done, but the awesome image of a dragon the size of a mountain granting your every whim is worth the dead friends and landscapes destroyed you had to go through to do it!

2. Lockheed

A list of top dragons in comics wouldn't be complete without the alien-slash-dragon-slash-superhero-slash-secret agent that is Lockheed! Pet Avenger, agent of SWORD and sometime pet of Kitty Pride, this little dragon's got big heart, going on all sorts of adventures you wouldn't imagine a dragon the size of a house cat would survive in. Which he does. But even guys like Lockheed have to bow down to the biggest dragon of them all...

1. Fin Fang Foom

Everything about our top dragon in comics screams awesome. His name, when translated, means "He whose limbs shatter mountains and whose back scrapes the sun." He's as big as a skyscraper. He's an alien conqueror. His archenemy is Iron Man. He used to be a chef at the Baxter Building. And he's badass enough to wear gigantic purple underpants. How do you beat someone like that? You don't, and that's why Foom is irrevocably number 1!

And there you have it, the big lizards of comicdom as counted down by yours truly. What did you think of the list? Know of any other comic book dragons worthy of being on the Top 5? Leave me a comment below and let's talk about it. Thanks for reading!

Be the grains of sand, and nothing but time will take you. The rocks must become it, the waves and wind must bear it and those who would hold it find it slips through their grasp. Always some trace in a faraway nook, if never the whole is seen again.